A Study Of Barry Commoner’s Ecological Conception Of Technology

Barry Commoner,a American biologist,environmental scientist and leader of the environmental movement,has been an outstanding contributor to environmental protection and ecological development worldwide for more than half a century thanks to his lifetime research on the relationship between environmental crisis and the development of technology.This paper will focus on the core of Commoner’s ecological thought,namely,Commoner’s ecological conception of technology,in order to sort out and clarify Commoner’s overall thinking of solving the contradiction between the technosphere and the ecosphere.Firstly,Commoner starts from the investigation of the root of environmental crisis and makes a reasonable criticism and reinterpretation of technological change under industrial civilization,which is the necessary premise for the establishment of Commoner’s ecological conception of technology.Second,as the philosophical thinking source of the analysis of Commoner’s ecological conception of technology,the systematic interpretation of Commoner’s ecological view is to clarify the understanding of the operation law of the ecosystem and the general understanding of the relationship between man and nature.Thirdly,this paper analyzes the main content of Commoner’s ecological conception of technology comprehensively from his ontological understanding of technology and the development process and connotation of Commoner’s ecological conception of technology.The construction of Commoner’s ecological conception of technology marks the effective establishment of Commoner’s theoretical basis and path guidance for solving the contradiction between technosphere and ecosphere.Finally,based on the historical development of contemporary western philosophy of ecology,In this paper,the connection,difference and influence between Commoner ’s ecological conception of technology and other schools of theory are analyzed,and the position,function and significance of this theory in contemporary western philosophy of ecology are clarified,and the possible reference of Commoner ’s ecological conception of technology to the current global sustainable development and the construction of ecological civilization in China is explored.